1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanical process and apparatus for bonding polymeric materials, such as a polyarylene sulphide, in particular polyphenylene sulphide, to a long length of backing and curing and cross linking polyphenylene sulphide on the backing to form an elongate strip of bearing material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One problem encountered in cladding a continuous backing with a polymeric coating, wherein the polymeric coating must be heat cured, is that the length of the processing equipment can become unacceptably lengthy. The usual speed of a continuously moving strip, which is to be coated and cured with a polymeric material, is about 10 meters per minute. If the curing operation requires 1 hour of heating time, that means that the heating apparatus must be 600 meters long. Obviously, the answer which comes to mind is to reduce the speed of the continuously moving strip so that shorter apparatus can be used. Even so, however, if the speed is reduced by a factor of 10 to say 1 meter/minute, the heating apparatus required must still be of a length of 60 meters.